Booking an auto in Hyderabad isn’t transportation. It’s a daily negotiation with fate. The same 4-kilometre ride can cost ₹90, ₹140, ₹180 or ₹250 depending on the time of day, the weather, the driver’s mood, Mercury being in retrograde, and perhaps the alignment of the Charminar minarets.
Every morning I conduct a small research project before leaving the house. I check Uber. I check Rapido. I check Ola. Then, just to stay humble, I ask an auto parked outside. The apps confidently promise me a ride for ₹98. I feel victorious for exactly twelve seconds. A driver accepts, I pick up my bag, lock the door, and watch the booking disappear before I’ve even reached the gate.The second driver accepts. The third one cancels. The fourth one doesn’t move for seven minutes. At this point, my destination feels less like a place and more like a life goal. Then comes my favourite part, the map. The little auto icon starts driving in the opposite direction, circles a junction, stops for two minutes, and convinces me it’s still coming. Eventually, the ride gets cancelled. Hyderabad believes every commute deserves a plot twist.I give up and walk towards the autos waiting on the roadside. The driver quotes almost double what the app showed five minutes ago. Strangely, I don’t even argue anymore. After three cancellations, the overpriced auto has somehow become the cheaper option. The funniest part is how quickly my standards collapse. A ride I would’ve called daylight robbery at 9:00 becomes a festival discount by 9:20.Traffic doesn’t help either. The auto finally arrives, but we spend the next fifteen minutes covering the distance I could’ve walked while refreshing three apps. I’ve started measuring auto fares not in rupees, but in emotional damage. This city taught me every journey begins with hope, survives cancellations, ends with bargaining, and finishes with me paying an amount I had sworn I never would.At this point, booking an auto isn’t transport. It’s our reality show and somehow, despite knowing exactly how every episode ends, I keep tuning in every single day.– This rant comes from Sanjana Pulugurtha, a Hyderabadi who has spent more time watching “Searching for a ride…” than actually riding in one.
